Tags: NOAA, Weather Satellite, JPSS
Publication: FCW.com
Publication Date: 11/27/2012

Technicians working on the polar-orbiting operational environmental weather satellite NOAA-N Prime. The satellite was launched in 2009. Image credit: Lockheed Martin

With an expected gap in weather satellite coverage, and no visible solution yet, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is turning to the general public. NOAA is asking for ideas on how to preserve the “quality and timeliness” of its numerical weather forecasts in the event that its polar-orbiting satellites stop working.

Additionally the Administration is reaching out to experts around the world asking for ideas. Whit this move, NOAA is exhausting every resource to find ways to work around the apparently inevitable blackout until the $13 billion Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) replacement becomes operational after 2017.

NOAA will be receiving ideas from the public though its Satellite and Information Service website until Dec. 19 at 5:00 p.m.

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